At last, the Braves have enjoyed back-to-back success at home. Gordon Beckham belted a three-run homer, while Nick Markakis drove in two runs on Saturday to push Atlanta to a 7-2 win over the Marlins at Turner Field.
“We had a lot of chances last night with runners in scoring position,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “Not a lot today, but we cashed in today.”
Atlanta won successive home games for the first time since sweeping three from the Cardinals to close out the 2015 season. The Braves have now beaten the Marlins all five times the clubs have met this year.
As a staff, Marlins pitchers entered Saturday having issued 198 walks, which is second most in the Majors to the Reds (216). Miami walked four on Saturday with three of the free passes scoring. Beckham doubled and scored off Wei-Yin Chen in the fourth. In the sixth, Atlanta scored three times off Jose Urena, who walked one. Beckham’s three-run homer off Edwin Jackson in the seventh came after two walks.
“This was the same game we’ve played every game against them,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “We get a little lead, and then we don’t do anything the rest of the day. You have to win games. You don’t just get games. We didn’t deserve to win. We didn’t play well enough to win.”
After breaking an 0-for-16 skid with a two-hit, two-RBI game on Friday night, Markakis came through for the Braves again on Saturday when they were down 2-0. He drove in the Braves’ first run with a sacrifice fly in the fourth to make it a 2-1 game. But it was his sixth-inning single that ended up giving Atlanta a 3-2 lead when the ball got past Marlins center fielder Marcell Ozuna and rolled all the way to the wall. Markakis, who advanced to third on the error, scored on Jeff Francoeur’s ground-rule double to center to extend the Braves’ lead to 4-2.
Chen threw three hitless innings, allowing just one baserunner, before Gordon Beckham doubled to center and took third on Ozuna’s error. The hit came on Chen’s third pitch of the frame. The Miami starter ended up tossing 36 more in the inning, for 39 total. Atlanta fouled off 18 of those pitches, and they scratched out a run on Markakis’ sac fly to center. Chen struck out Freddie Freeman in the inning, but on 10 pitches. The long inning ended up forcing Chen out of the game after just five frames. The Braves did big damage off Urena in the sixth, taking the lead.
“I think my control was a little off there,” Chen said through his interpreter about the inning. “I think sometimes I should have thrown a ball there. I allowed a lot of foul balls there. So I think my control could have been better.”
The Braves got big insurance runs in the seventh thanks to Beckham’s three-run homer to left-center after back-to-back walks to Chase d’Arnaud and Mallex Smith. The shot gave Atlanta a 7-2 cushion.
Scoring early off the Braves is nothing new for the Marlins. Miami has taken the early lead in all five games this season against Atlanta, only to watch the games slip away. The Marlins got on the board with two runs off prospect Aaron Blair in the second inning. Derek Dietrich, hitting to the left side for a single against the shift, collected a single. He scored on Cole Gillespie’s triple. Adeiny Hechavarria’s RBI single through a drawn-in infield made it 2-0.
